Conventional wireless networks typically include one or more wireless access points to provide mobile communication devices access to a remote network such as the Internet. During operation, conventional wireless access points sometimes implement a channel change algorithm that chooses a best wireless channel on which to communicate. Measured noise can be used as a factor when selecting an appropriate channel to communicate with the mobile communication devices.
In certain instances, a wireless access point can be configured to change wireless channels too often. Unfortunately, excessive wireless channel changes can result in connectivity issues (e.g., lost packets, temporary wireless channel unavailability, etc.) to a corresponding mobile communication device user. Accordingly, in some cases, it has been proposed by certain service providers to disable a channel selection algorithm of a wireless access point to avoid excessive channel changes.
Note that in furtherance of providing more efficient wireless channel changes, the 802.11 specification defines a so-called Channel Switch Announcement (CSA) message. The CSA message is used to initiate a change from using one wireless channel to another. However, many older devices do not listen to or are not able to listen for CSA messages. Channel changes can otherwise cause a pause or cessation of receiving video data. Dropped or lost video data packets are undesirable to the user.